I have copied the enter post below from the Addison board as it gives a great explaination of why HC is needed and how it interacts in the body.  The author of the post (Dick) teaches bio-chemistry to training doctors so, his posts are always worth reading. I found it very informative.

ShaunP.

So why aren't you eating regular meals? Skipping breakfast, are you? Want to keep that very trim figure do you? Think it is essential to keep that male's attention, or are you more concerned with the reaction of your female friends? Maybe you have been brainwashed so long by the image that the only attractive woman is the one who is exceptionally thin, that you cannot escape it. I am certainly not recommending that you "pork-up", but both recent and past posts have led me to this little essay.

TWO GOOD REASONS FOR THREE REGULAR MEALS: 1. The Addisons Connection. I am not going to preach about health and nutrition. I assume that you know this. Let's look at one reason we take a replacement for the cortisol we don't make. In a word, it's gluconeogenesis, a real mouthful, but that is what it is all about, getting your mouth full. What is gluconeogenesis? It is the process our body uses to convert protein and fat into usable energy. Literally the word means the generation of glucose or blood sugar equivalents. Cortisol is the hormonal "switch" that enables this process. The glucose equivalents are stored in the form of starch in our liver or go directly into the blood stream. The process is reversible so that cortisol also enables the conversion of blood sugar into to protein, and other body building blocks, including fat. Under stress we pump out more adrenaline. Among other things, this stimulates the liver convert the stored starch into blood sugar that can be used by the brain and other tissues. What if there is no stored starch? For one thing you can go "ketonic", this can give us headaches, and make us sick. The brain mobilizes everything to get the energy it needs to survive and in this case it says lets make ketones. But there is a cost in the way you feel and it can become dangerous because this is hypoglycemia. Why would you not have any starch in your liver? Because you must eat! If cortisol is going to work in this way, it has to have something to work on! Because of our cortisol deficiency we are on the brink of stress (physiologic). Why push it further and skip breakfast or other meals? Just a little breakfast is good, but try to eat some protein. Cheese, eggs, cold-cuts, milk, cottage cheese, and yogurt are all good choices. A less digestible carbohydrate such as a whole grain cereal or breads are also good. Some commercial cereals contain nuts, which are a good source of protein.

We take our cortisol replacement at regular intervals. Why defeat part of that by not eating regularly? You don't have to pig out. Judicious choice of foods and exercise will keep you in fine shape! So Barb, you probably had low blood sugar when you nearly passed out. It was heightened by your stress as you got closer to work and started thinking about how your day might go. You started pumping adrenaline and this made you sick.

REASON 2 FOR REGULAR MEALS: Did you know that you can increase the cancer rate in laboratory animals by fasting them for part of their day? The lack of regular food results in changes in the DNA which eventually result in increased cancer. The changes in DNA can be measured and it has been shown that this also occurs in humans, but can be eliminated by regular meals. The process, cancer, does not happen over night, but prolonged lack of regular meals likely puts us at greater risk. (This is also a good reason for feeding our pets more than once a day.)

Lets think about regular meals, even if they are small. It is better for our health!